Development of Energetic Polymer Systems for Additive Manufacturing Energetic Formulations

The US Army is investing in the development of energetic materials for use in additive manufacturing (AM) for explosive and propellant applications in an ongoing effort to achieve extended range and lethality overmatch.  Currently, all commercially available monomers, polymers or resin systems for AM are non-energetic.  To use these in 3D printing applications for propellants and/or explosives, one must add energetic materials, typically solids.  Adding energetic solids to a resin typically increases viscosity, causes settling, impedes curing mechanisms, as well as other issues that must be addressed. Nalas Engineering is partnering with Dr. Lori Groven at South Dakota School of Mines to develop novel energetic monomers for use in additive manufacturing.  The focus of Nalas’ effort in the collaboration will be to synthesize novel energetic monomers which offer the ability to dramatically reduce the amount of energetic solid ingredients that might be needed to build a printed part with desired performance.  Dr. Groven’s team will incorporate the novel monomers into liquid resins, followed by 3D printing test pieces for evaluations of the performance and mechanical properties. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop scalable, affordable energetic monomers to enable high performance additive manufacturing of explosives and propellants.